After this course you will be able to:
- critically reflect on the state of the art in "comparative political philosophy" and to define a specifically philosophical approach;
- identify positions and counter-positions in present-day debates;
- apply the acquired skills to a field of one's own choice and interest.
|
|
Comparative Political Philosophy
CPP compares the political philosophy in different parts of the world (and in different periods), taking into account historical, geographic, linguistic, socio-economic, cultural, and religious factors as their background. This seminar assumes, hypothetically, that "the political" and "politics" are universal and that, therefore, "political philosophy" or something equivalent is likely to exist in all times and places. Both the rejection of non-Western political thought / philosophy as "not serious" or "not for us" and the embracing of such thought / philosophy as "really different" and therefore superior, are approached with academic caution and critical distance. "Comparative political philosophy" as an academic field of research and discussion both addresses and reflects these issues. The build-up of the seminar is threefold. The first part will introduce the field as a whole, paying particular attention to the difference between "political theory" generally and "political philosophy" in particular, and will be concluded by a written "position paper" by all participants, to be discussed in class. During the second part, the lecturer's current research (which is taking the shape of a book-length manuscript with the (working) title Poitical Philosophy in Russia) will take centre stage and function as an example for the participating students to choose their own topic / author / theme / area and search for the relevant literature; this second step will be concluded with a "workplan", to be discussed in class. Having received the relevant feedback from lecturer and classmates, the third step concists of independent individual research, accompanied by regular tutorials and a halfway presentation, leading up to a final paper. The first position paper will account for 25% of the grade, the second paper, "workplan", also for 25%, and the final paper for the remaining 50%. |
|
|